Game Recap/Notes: Preseason game #3. Pistons 99 - Thunder 115
Some good some bad.
Cade Cunningham:
Continues his preseason decision just to be passive. 10 points on 15 shot equivalents with 2 assists. 8 rebounds are nice I guess. I am not worried about Cade not playing particularly well because it is preseason and we don’t worry about shooting percentages in the preseason my guess is that his passiveness is purely a result of it being preseason so he doesn’t want to really exert himself while also making sure other guys are getting chances because it is preseason. If this level of passive play carries over into the first game of the actual season we can start to get worried that the Pistons are making a concerted effort to get the ball out of Cade’s hands, but for now, I’m not worried.
Jaden Ivey:
Still some only “okay” numbers. 11 points on 14 shot equivalents, 4 assists against 4 turnovers. But the eye test is getting passed with flying colors by Ivey. He’s dicing up defenders, playing with great effort defensively (1 steal and two blocks tonight by the way) and even though he has had some turnovers they have been closer to normal young guy turnovers and not the disasters we had feared. At Purdue Ivey would occasionally dribble into a crowd and toss passes to literally no one, that isn’t really happening here. He’s also countered what turnovers he’s committed with some really nice passes of himself.
The numbers will have to improve from these games of course, but everything is clearly there for Ivey. He’s looked about as good as anyone could’ve hoped for.
Saddiq Bey:
19 points on 14 equivalents, with 4 assists against 2 turnovers is a tidy night. I’m not sure why tonight was the night that referees decided to send Saddiq to the foul line (he shot 8 free throws) but if he can draw fouls it makes his driving to the basket more tolerable. Mostly though, Bey continues to look like largely the same player, which is perfectly fine, and it’s very nice to see the ball go in the hoop so that hopefully he doesn’t start off as slow as last year.
Marvin Bagley:
Got the start with some other injuries and took a bad knee injury in the first minute. As of this writing they have no officially announced the severity beyond calling it “a right knee injury” but based on how it looked no one would be surprised if he is done for the year. If that ends up being the case we can discuss it once its official, for now just hope we get good news.
Isaiah Stewart:
At a base level, he was fine. 6 points on 5 shots with 7 boards. The problem is that we got the first glimpse of Stewart as the 4 next to Jalen Duren following Bagley’s injury and while that combo wasn’t a total disaster, for the long view it didn’t give much optimism. Stewart spent significant time playing as the nominal 4 and he didn’t even attempt a three and for most of those possessions his defender sagged way off of him. The more disappointing thing was that Detroit didn’t feel at all overwhelmed defensively with Stewart and Duren on the court, but that’s probably more to do with Duren.
Nights like tonight, where literally every other power forward on the team is hurt, are where you pretty much have no choice but to go to Stewart at the 4 so that’s fine, but I still remain fully against the idea of trying it if you can avoid it.
Jalen Duren:
Played a lot following the Bagley injury. 5 points on 6 equivalents with 10 boards and a pair of assists. Duren seems to be making it pretty clear that even if he struggles with some aspects of the game as a rookie, he’s a monster rebounder from day 1 as he collected 7(!) offensive boards in this game and his ability on the glass should provide a nice base for his game early in his career.
Other than the rebounding, he continues to show nice flashes as a passer, making one really slick pass when he was rolling to the hoop. Defensively he needs to get tightened up though. It’s very normal for young bigs to struggle with the mental aspect but he was regularly ball-watching and simply forgetting about his man as they cut behind and away from him. It’s one thing for young players to miss rotations, its another to just not pay attention.
Duren still looks very promising, the question is if he has enough now to deserve real-time immediately.
Killian Hayes:
Big game for Hayes. 20 points on 14 shot equivalents with 7 assists against just 1 turnover. I’m not sure that there was a great deal to point to for this game as a lightbulb moment, but as I’ve said before, at this point it’s about hitting more shots, and tonight he did. Killian’s defensive abilities mean that if he can even be just a normal level of bad offensively he should be a capable rotation guy.
Others:
Cool for CoJo I guess. Braxton Key played 22 minutes but didn’t do much of note.
The switch everything defense:
Somewhat bizarre. As far as I can remember it hasn’t really been something Casey teams (whether Detroit or elsewhere) have done a ton of in the past. Theoretically, it could be a good fit with the size and ranginess of the Pistons, it also has benefits as a really simple system that should be easier for a young team to grasp and give up less breakdowns.
That theory hasn’t looked to be the case in preseason though, breakdowns are regular and easy buckets have come aplenty for the opposition. I’ll give it more time to really judge but not a great look so far and it isn’t clear why they are doing it. If they keep it into the regular season it will be a point of emphasise to look at closely in this space.